Long live D11! Now for those of you who don't know, I attended Muhlenberg College right in the heart of D11 in the Lehigh Valley. The Lehigh XC course, the Lehigh Parkway and Allentown High School's track are now permanent fixtures of my running related memories. So I can't help but root for the District 11 squads in the middle of a banner year and just after a phenomenal showing at Whitehall.
And it starts at the top. Colin Abert threw down an impressive double victory running 9:41 and then 4:14 for an emphatic win in the 16. Abert has now run 9:17 and 4:14 this spring, both during races he was dominate in unlike many of the ideal weather, ideal competition affairs we have seen lately. Here's the thing: Abert was really good during XC. He broke 15 at Lehigh and ran a blazing fast time at Hershey, he just ran into 4 other greats. Brophy is sub 9 now, KJ has run 4:10 and 9:03, Marston has run 9:01 and just ran 4:16 and McGoey has the only individual state title of the 4 on the track with his indoor 3k gold. And 6th and 7th behind Abert were Sam Webb and Casey Comber. We are staring the best top 7 in the states history in the face right now and if we are lucky enough to see those 7 dual at states this outdoors (with a few more fun names thrown in, my writers know what I'm talking about) we could witness something amazing. And Abert is just as likely as any to make noise.
Abert's 4:14 set the tone for a massive day from the D11 boys and Joe Espinal took advantage, running 4:19 and then doubling back for 1:55. I think they might run both divisions at the same time and then separate the results, but if they don't Espinal won both races by a huge margin and beat the 3rd place finisher at 1600m from AA last year, Kyle Gonoude, by an impressive 15 seconds. Espinal is one of the best kept secrets in the state and was just scratching the surface of his potential last year before running out of gas a bit down the stretch. This outdoors he seems much stronger and, as a junior, he has valuable experience and is poised to be a sleeper medal contender in the AAA 16.
Also having nice breakthroughs today were Will Aplaugh from Freedom (4:23), Ryan Paradise from Emmaus (4:23), Khai Samuels (4:24), Calvin Schneck (4:24) and Kevin Lapsansky (4:28). For Lapansky this was a nice Pr that came just after his 9:42 runner up in the 32 last night. He will be a dangerous 32 individual for the stretch run. Paradise leads an Emmaus squad that ran under 8:10 last night and 8:01 in 2014. He doubled in 1:59 today and led two teammates to 3-5-6 finish in the open 8. Samuels got a solid 1:57 win in the 16 and Schneck doubled back in 1:59.0 for second.
The D11 championships next week should be quite entertaining. The 16 will likely include all these names plus some of the Jim Thorpe studs and maybe some other sleepers. They could produce 5-6 individual state qualifiers in the event with potential for even more depending on who else is sitting on a breakthrough. Abert and Lapsansky will have to square off against solid 2 milers like Gabe Lamm and Seth Slavin and then lots of doublers will head back to the track in an intense 800m dual with Espinal and Samuels leading the way.
And the 4x8? I like Jim Thorpe and Bangor to run hard but at the front you have teams like Pleasant Valley and Emmaus plus Whitehall and maybe even Easton (they could have a great team if they choose to go for it). It's a compelling story on the verge of being told and a great moment for my home away from home. Good luck to all these guys at states and continue to make magic happen! This is an awesome year top to bottom in the state of Pennsylvania.
Any ches-mont analysis Etrain?
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